May you discover the magic of la Navidad all over again! Merry Christmas!

La Plaza Olvera is where the heart of Mexican culture in Los Angeles beats. This is where all the tourists go to in downtown to get a feel of a traditional plaza with its mercadito, churros, tamales and obligatory knick knacks to buy. But Olvera Street is more than a tourist spot, it’s a historical landmark known as “the birthplace of Los Angeles,” or Nuestra Ciudad de Los Angeles.

So imagine how thrilled we were when Camila’s Spanish music teacher at school — which so happens to be Sara of Music with Sara! — told us the school’s Spanish immersion students had been invited to sing at the Plaza Olvera’s tree lighting ceremony! Of course we signed her up and she was super excited.

They sang a slew of traditional villancicos, as well as adored songs like “Cómo la Flor” and “Tómbola.” The kids were just amazing and our hearts melted every time Sara would get up to let the audience know that these kids are learning in two languages and most of them don’t even have the luxury of speaking Spanish at home. Yet there they were, singing their hearts out en español y en la Plaza Olvera.

Below are a few Instagram videos I made, but I also share more pictures of this beautiful moment, as well as of the other three music and ballet performances my daughter had the last few weeks, over in this post on my Babble column. She’s sure kept us busy y muy orgullosos!!

Our friends at Lanugo have put together this Christmas coloring book for us to share with all of you. The Lanugo Christmas coloring book celebrates our cultural traditions during this time of year. Inside you’ll find los tres Reyes Magos, a page dedicated to el villancico “El Burrito Sabanero,” and much more!

Click here for the printable version of the Lanugo Christmas coloring book. 

You might remember Pango, the adorable blue raccoon, from our previous review of Pango Imaginary Car. Developer Studio Pango has just released a cute seasonal app which is, best of all, multilingual. Pango Christmas 2013 is a fun way to keep kids excited about the upcoming holiday.

In this app, Pango is getting ready for Christmas with his animal friends. They are setting up the wreath, building a snowman, and staying warm by the fire while they participate in other traditional preparations.

Each interactive page has some fun surprises and funny new characters. It’s highly entertaining for preschoolers and offers an opportunity for Spanish reading practice for the slightly older kids.

Note: Just change your device language to Spanish (or any of the other 7 languages compatible with Pango apps) and the app language will change.

Find Pango Christmas 2013 in iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon App Store

Available for iPhone, iPad, and Android

Recommended for ages 3 and up

Price: $2.99 – $3.66

Check out more from Studio Pango on their website.

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My 7-year-old daughter, Vanessa, loves it when I tell her we’re going to do a craft together. Although I’m never sure if I’m doing things right, just quality spending time with her and my younger son trying to make something beautiful and unique with our own hands is enough to make me love it too!

Since we’ll be spending Nochebuena at my sister’s house this year and she’s asked all of us to bring an ornament for her Christmas tree, we decided that we would make them, making sure we somehow incorporated the Spanish language. After trying to come up with something totally different, I remembered I had once seen an ornament made with the wooden tiles of Scrabble, one of my favorite board games.

Believe or not, I have a really old one that I’ve kept for many years even though it’s missing many of the letters. I know I could’ve just ordered the ones missing, but I never got around to it and since we wanted to make some original ornaments, I figured the time had come to put the tiles to good use.

So we decided to make ornaments with words in Spanish that represent the holidays for us using Scrabble letters. If you don’t have a set of Scrabble, you can get one for less than $20 at Walmart. While it may feel weird to get a board game just for a craft, think about the compliments you’ll get on your unique ornaments.

Other than the actual wooden tiles, you’ll need some Christmas-themed ribbon, a gun glue and any other trinkets you may want to include and you can find all of it in the crafts section of your local Walmart. We got some jingle bells and we ended up doing two different types of ornaments. One with the words spelled out horizontally using colorful foam sheets as the backing and one with the words  spelled out vertically using ribbon as the backing.

The first thing we did was come up with a list of words in Spanish that we associate with the holiday season. Then, we grabbed the ribbon of our choice and we laid down each letter attaching it to the ribbon with a bit of glue. We left a bit of space between each tile because we wanted the polka dots to come through, but you don’t have to. We also left extra ribbon on top to make a loop to hang the ornament.

My favorite part of this craft is that the options are endless and the kids get to practice their spelling in Spanish!

Have we told you that being a SpanglishBaby subscriber comes with perks? Well, it does! Not only will you guarantee you never miss one of our articles and finds, but you also get access to exclusive and free downloads of printables for bilingual kids, as well as giveaways for subscribers only.

This month we’ve put together a holiday pack in Spanish with:

• Bingo navideño
• Juego de memoria navideño
• Tarjetas de regalo
• Carta a Papá Noel

You’ll be able to download it as soon as you subscribe below. If you’re already a subscriber, just check your SpanglishBaby email and you’ll see a link to download the full pack for free! We hope you and your peques love it!

My family and I are lucky to be able to go to Disneyland quite frequently, but I can attest that never have we felt so thrilled and felt so at home as we did last week when we were invited to the media event for Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! at California Adventure.

I already shared with you a sneak peek with a few Instagram videos I took, but I promised you more and here it is!

I got the chance to interview Susana Tubert, one of the Disney creatives behind the whole ¡Viva Navidad! concept. Susana, a bilingual Argentinean, had the fun task of bringing alive the spirit of the Latin American celebrations of la navidad in a uniquely Disney way. Susana, who is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Latino International Theater Festival of New York, Inc. came on board only a few months ago and I’ve gotta say that what she and Disney delivered is a pure fiesta con mucho corazón y alma latina.

Just check it out y comienza a vivir la navidad!

Want more of Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad!? Check out five reasons why  it’s a must-see.

Last night we were invited to the premiere of Disney’s first-ever celebration of La Navidad: ¡Viva Navidad!

Located in Paradise Gardens at Disney California Adventure Park, Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! is a Latin-themed holiday street party that’s toda una fiesta con verdadero sabor navideño! From the music that includes Mexican mariachi and samba, to the folkloric dance, colorful pageantry and just overall festive environment that Disney got just right. Of course, the fun is led by The Three Caballeros with a very special appearance by Mickey and Minnie!

I can’t even explain to you how happy I felt when I saw it the first time. I felt I was definitely witnessing a beautiful homage to part of our Latin culture that exemplifies nuestro amor por la vida y las tradiciones. My daughter felt completely identified and was singing out loud to the tunes of “Feliz Navidad” and wouldn’t stop dancing. She even recognized that her Mexican doll looked like the dancers!

Here are two Instagram videos I shot with a sneak peek into the ¡Viva Navidad! street party that’s going on now until January 6 with around six daily performances. In a few days I will bring you an interview with one of the Latina’s behind the creation of  ¡Viva Navidad!, as well as video of the complete street party.

Oh, and there’s also lots of Mexican street food and desserts to enjoy at the Paradise Gardens, to the tunes of Latin bands. How about a Mickey concha?

Can it be true? Can Disneyland Resort really be creating a special 8-week long celebration in “inspired by the warmth and joyous spirit of the Latino culture, filled with holiday traditions, jubilant dancing and exciting music”. ¡Así es!

We live so close to Disneyland Resort and are lucky enough to visit the parks many times per year and are always happy to see things like their Día de Muertos altars or Reyes Magos celebrations, but in some way it’s never quite enough. So you can imagine lo felices que estamos that Disney announced today “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!” from November 15, 2013 to January 6th, 2014 in Disney California Adventure Park.

From their announcement:

“Disney ¡Viva Navidad!” is a merry celebration inspired by the warmth and joyous spirit of the Latino culture, filled with holiday traditions, jubilant dancing and exciting music. Based in and around the Paradise Garden area of Disney California Adventure, the special activities include crafts and face-painting for children, live Latino music, dance lessons, holiday foods, a “Disney ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party” and, of course, appearances by some popular Disney characters.

The grand finale of “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!” will be the special celebration of Three Kings Day (Día de los Reyes) Jan. 3 through 6, 2014 in Paradise Garden. We will for sure not miss that one!

To read the full announcement with more details on the Latino-centered celebrations, visit the Disneyland News blog.

What do you think about this announcement? Do you want to go to “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!”?

The lechón smells delicious as it finishes roasting in the oven, the majority of the gifts are wrapped and underneath the Christmas tree and the playlist full of trullas navideñas and villancicos is ready for tonight’s Nochebuena celebration, which I’ll be hosting in my home this year. It’s going to be a long night… but one of my favorite ones of the year.

I doubt we’ll wait until midnight to have dinner — like we  used to when I was a child since we first went to Misa de Gallo — but we’ll be sitting down at the table fairly late. Past 10 p.m., I’m sure. If my dad was still alive, we’d be having turkey, like most Peruvians do for Christmas. But he’s gone and nobody makes turkey like he did, so we’ve switched our menu to reflect my husband’s Puerto Rican heritage. And, although I’m obviously partial, he makes a mean lechón.

Dinner will go on a forever and it’ll be loud, although not as much as other years, since not everyone in the family is in town. I know I’ll be stuffing myself with all the goodies on the table, but I can’t say the same for Vanessa, who half-way through dinner will start asking when we’ll be opening the gifts. The asking will go on incessantly, until we finally gather around the tree and start the gifting frenzy.

But first, at the stroke of midnight, I’ll hand Vanessa the little Baby Jesus figurine, and she’ll put it in our pesebre. After that, we’ll make a champagne toast and there’ll be a lot of hugging, kissing, laughing and all around happiness as we all wish each other ¡Feliz Navidad!

When I was little, my mom had my sister and I read the names on the gift tags out loud and then we all had to wait for the person to open their gift to see what they got. Now that Vanessa knows how to read, I’m passing on that responsibility to her. I think she’s going to be a great helper and she’ll love being in charge!

Before the night is over, we’ll have some Panetón and hot chocolate — a Peruvian tradition — which will be a perfect way to end the first Blanca Navidad Denver has seen in many, many years. (Yes! It’s snowing!)

On Christmas Day, the kids will wake up and open the gifts they got from Santa. I hope they sleep late, considering we’ll be going to bed super late tonight, but I know that’s wishful thinking. The rest of Christmas Day will be super lazy with the kids playing with their new toys and the rest of us eating leftovers — if there are any — in our PJs.

Here’s wishing you a very Merry Navidad!

{Photo by  lett -/\=}